The Hindu : Front Page : Social dislocation feeds Maldives Islamism

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Nov 18, 2007
ePaper

Front Page

Front Page

Social dislocation feeds Maldives Islamism

Praveen Swami

As street crime and narcotics proliferate, religious extremists draw island youth

MALE (THE MALDIVES): Three years ago, Ali Rameez abandoned his place under the spotlights, and chose a new life guided by the light of Islam.

In a public demonstration of his new convictions, the Maldives’ top rock star had thousands of hit compact discs thrown into the sea off Male, and invited his fans to follow the teachings of the islands’ best-known neoconservative Islamic theologian, Sheikh Ibrahim Fareed.

Both Mr. Rameez and Mr. Fareed are now being investigated for possible links with the cell which carried out the September 29 bombing at Male’s Sultan Park — the first-ever Islamist terror attack in the Maldives. But the real significance of Mr. Rameez’s story doesn’t lie in his possible links with terrorism. Instead, his journey represents an ongoing battle between religious neo-conservatism and liberalism: a battle Islamists seem to be winning.

Maldives residents say the influence of Islamists has become increasingly visible in what used to be an almost ostentatiously westernised society. There are more women wearing headscarves than short skirts or jeans now, while a growing number of men can be seen sporting full-length beards. On some islands, women have defied laws that prohibit the all-enveloping buruga, known in India as burkha.

Underpinning this shift is a deep cultural dislocation. Signs of the simmering social crisis aren’t hard to come by. Just three kilometres by two kilometres, Male is home to a welter of street gangs, engaging in violent crime and competing to sell drugs. Machangolhi’s Buru gang has clashed with the BG in Maafannu and the Flats’ Bosnia gang, named after the jihad which stirred Islamists worldwide.

Narcotics use has also grown to disturbing levels. According to a 2006 United Nations Children’s Education Fund report, non-governmental organisations have estimated that there are some 8,000 drug users in the islands — an astounding figure, given that their total population is just some 300,000. In the southern-most atoll of Addu, informants told UNICEF that up to 70% of young men and women were using drugs.

Islamist mobilisation

Islamist groups have been quick to cash in on the discontent, offering the rigours of religious practice as a cure for the strains of cultural and economic change. “Many parents,” says Male journalist Ahmed Nazim Sattar, “are delighted that their wards turn to religious groups, since it keeps them away from drugs and gangs. Very few understand where this journey might take their children.” Bookstores selling the Islamist vision to new recruits have proliferated. One, until recently owned by Mr. Rameez’s brother, Ibrahim Fareed, stocks a wide range of Salafi sect literature. Zakir Naik, a controversial Mumbai-based television evangelist whose admirers included 2005 Mumbai serial bombing-accused Feroze Deshmukh and Glasgow suicide-bomber Kafeel Ahmed, occupies a place of honour on the shelves.

Perhaps more important than ideology, Islamist groups are able to provide new recruits tangible material inducements.

Male’s traditional elites — in the main merchants and traders — have proved energetic sponsors of Islamist networks, hoping to regain the political influence they have lost to the new rich. Young Islamists are offered jobs, loans to start up businesses, and access to commercial networks that stretch into India and Pakistan.

Maldives Information and Legal Reform Minister Mohamed Nasheed is candid about the scale of the problem: “We turn out 10,000 ‘O’-level graduates each year, but the kinds of white-collar jobs they expect aren’t on offer. We need to find ways to absorb them into useful economic activities. We always thought prosperity would solve all our problems, but are now realising there are distributive and social issues that must be addressed.”

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Front Page